


will you take my hand (and not let go?)

by byungari



Category: Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Canon Compliant, M/M, Unrequited Love, platonic minhwancham, this was supposed to be angst but its not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2019-08-04 18:46:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16352138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/byungari/pseuds/byungari
Summary: Woojin wants to move on.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hello, hello!  
> this is my fic for 2park week.  
> it's a different writing style than how i usually write because i'm experimenting(?) right now, and i hope you enjoy!  
> **separated into chapters for flow reasons

Woojin stares as Jihoon continues to cling onto an amused Seongwoo with hearts spilling out of his eyes.

It hurts, Woojin thinks, to see the man he loves more than the universe itself love someone else.

“Seongwoo hyung,” Jihoon whines. “I’m hungry.”

“You brat.” Seongwoo gives Jihoon a light flick on the forehead. “We still have thirty minutes of practice left. Hyung will buy you something to eat after, okay?”

Jihoon beams at that and lets Seongwoo go. The rest of the hyung-line chuckles at the younger’s blatant displays of affection and looks at the pair fondly. Woojin turns away from the sight when Seongwoo leans down to drop a kiss on the younger’s forehead where he had flicked earlier.

“You okay, hyung?” Jinyoung gives him a worried look when he sees how pale Woojin is. “Are you sick?”

That gets Woojin (unwanted) attention from the other members and Jisung walks over to check Woojin’s temperature. Jihoon looks at him in worry and looks like he’s going to walk over too, but waits for Jisung to check Woojin’s temperature first.

“I’m not sick.” Woojin ducks a little to avoid Jisung’s hand, causing his leader to frown. “It’s just a little warm, that’s all.”

“It’s snowing outside,” Daehwi points out and Woojin gives him a look that says ‘shut your trap before I punch you.’ Daehwi recognizes the look from the years they’ve trained together and dutifully pretends to zip his lips shut and throw away the key.

Woojin turns back to Jisung. “I’m really not sick, I swear.”

“Okay, if you say so.” Jisung is hesitant to let Woojin go, but he trusts that Woojin is capable of handling himself. Jisung is wrong, but Woojin isn’t going to correct him. He has an image to protect. “Let me know if you start to feel sick though, okay? I’m sure the company will be okay with you going home early.”

“Unlikely,” Woojin mumbles under his breath but nods anyways. “I will, hyung. I’ll be fine, though. I never get sick. I’m practically immune to sicknesses.”

“Shingles,” Jinyoung says while coughing in a pathetic attempt to cover up what he’s saying. Or maybe he isn’t attempting at all and is out to get Woojin like Daehwi is. The brats.

“Shut up, Jinyoung,” Woojin hisses, and Jinyoung raises his hands in surrender while grinning.

Practice continues and when it’s clear that Woojin hadn’t been lying when he said he wasn’t sick, Jisung stops shooting him worried looks and focuses on practice as well. After it ends, Woojin stays back to fool around with some choreography with Sungwoon and Daniel while the rest of their members go off and do their own things. Jaehwan also decides to stay back with them because he wants to practice his dancing a little more, but mostly because he doesn’t want to go back to their apartment just quite yet because Minhyun had made Jaehwan promise to clean his room after practice.

“Don’t push yourself too hard,” Jihoon comes up and tells Woojin while the latter is drinking water. Woojin almost chokes and spits his water out in shock because he hadn’t heard Jihoon approaching and he had scared the living hell out of him.

“Jesus, make some noise while you walk.” Woojin coughs and it feels like he’s going to cough his lungs out. “I won’t. I’m nowhere close to getting sick, anyways. Your worries are all misplaced.”

Jihoon rolls his eyes and hits Woojin in the back in a manner that seems like help, but really it’s doing nothing but causing Woojin unnecessary back pain.

“Us worrying about you for anything isn’t misplaced,” Jihoon tells him in his matter-of-fact voice that makes Woojin’s face fall and push Jihoon’s forehead with his index finger. “Anyways, go home early and get some sleep.”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” Woojin grumbles but the two of them know he will probably listen to Jihoon anyways. Maybe.

“Don’t worry, Jihoon-ah,” Daniel calls out from where he’s standing by the stereo with Sungwoon and Jaehwan. “We won’t be staying too long.”

Jihoon nods in satisfaction and waves goodbye to Woojin before leaving with Seongwoo to go get some food.

True to Daniel’s words, the four of them don’t stay too long and pack up to go back to their dorm after around two hours of fooling around.

“I’m hungry,” Daniel says when they’re almost at their dorm.

“Me too.” Jaehwan looks down as his stomach gives a little growl.

“We have food at home, kids,” Sungwoon tells them while putting his phone away. “Seongwoo and Jihoon brought some back after their date.”

Woojin doesn’t really want to eat anything they got from their date because he’s kind of petty like that, but instead of saying that he asks, “What did they get us?”

“Chicken, because what else does our jeojang man eat?” Sungwoon snorts. “Come on, lets hurry up before the bottomless pit known as our maknae-line eats everything.”

\--------------

Woojin wonders if this is bad karma or something because not two days after he declared himself immune from sickness, Woojin finds himself bedridden with a fever of 40 degree Celsius.

“Immune to sicknesses, he said.” Jihoon mocks Woojin’s words as he reads the temperature on the thermometer because he’s a demon like that. “Yeah, right, Park Woojin.”

“Shut up, demon,” Woojin croaks, sounding like he has thirty toads that all lost their voices (croaks?) in his throat. “I’m sick. Be nice to me.”

Jihoon ignores him and puts away the thermometer. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to go get Jisung hyung. And maybe Minhyun hyung.”

Woojin just grunts in response because, wow, his throat feels like its dying. How had he survived being sick before? Maybe God is telling him it’s time to go.

“Please don’t take me just yet, God,” Woojin says to himself in his half-delirious state. The fever is starting to affect his brain, he thinks. “I’m too young to die.”

“You have a cold, not some incurable disease unknown to man,” Jisung says when he walks into the room with Jihoon trailing in behind him. “I told you not to overwork yourself.” He has his ‘I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed’ look on his face and Woojin pouts.

“I didn’t get sick on purpose,” Woojin tries to say, but he starts coughing in the middle of his sentence, so he ends up sounding like a dying frog.

Jisung just gives an exasperated sigh and asks Jihoon to help Woojin sit up so that he can eat some of the porridge Minhyun is going to bring and take the cold medicine Jisung brought.

Every bite of the porridge Woojin swallows feels like gravel going down his throat because of how swollen it is, but he doesn’t complain and lets Jihoon feed him (by shoving the spoon into Woojin’s mouth every time he tries to say he’s full).

“The medicine should hit in a couple of minutes,” Jisung says after Woojin takes the pills. “You’ll fall asleep, soon, probably. I’m glad this is a free day.”

Woojin tries to respond but all he manages to get out are some garbled messes that has Jisung, Minhyun, and Jihoon leaning in with confused expressions as they try to decipher his words.

“What did you say?” Jihoon asks, his eyebrows furrowed. He snorts when Woojin grunts and closes his eyes, falling asleep pretty much instantly.

“Wow, that hit him sooner than I thought it would.” Jisung cleans up the tray of porridge and packs up the rest of the medicine.

“I’ll keep an eye on him,” Jihoon tells his two hyungs. “I was just going to stay in and play games anyways.”

Minhyun nods. “Okay, thanks Jihoon. We’ll both be around so just let us know if you need anything, okay?”

“Text me when he wakes up, please,” Jisung requests before he follows Minhyun out of the room.

Jihoon settles down on his bed after shoving his clothes onto the floor. He would clean that up later. Probably.

“Woojin will probably nag me anyways,” Jihoon mumbles as he pulls out his phone to play some games. He glances over at his sleeping best friend and sighs when he sees that Woojin is shivering despite the two thick blankets Jihoon had thrown over him earlier, and that sweat beads starts to form on his forehead and trickle down his face.

He gets up from his bed and grabs one of the shirts he threw onto the floor earlier and wipes Woojin’s sweat away. He frowns and tries to look for another blanket to throw over the shivering boy but comes up empty.

“Hey.” Jihoon pokes his head into Jinyoung’s and Daehwi’s room. “Do you guys have any spare blankets I can borrow?”

“Depends.” Jinyoung swivels around on his chair to face Jihoon. “Will you wash them before you return them?”

Jihoon groans. “I have to even if I don’t want to. They’re for Woojin, and he’s sick.”

“Woojin hyung is sick?” Daehwi looks up from his homework in mild concern. “What did that idiot hyung do this time?”

“It’s great to see you care so much.” Jihoon nods in mock respect. “He has a cold. I think it’s because he’s a stubborn idiot who refuses to wear anything but t-shirts even when it’s below freezing outside.”

“Ugh, just seeing him makes me cold,” Jinyoung mutters. He gets up from his chair and opens up the closet in their room and pulls down a folded blanket from the top. “Here you go, hyung. Please wash it before returning, thank you.”

“I already said I would, brat.” Jihoon grunts as he takes the blanket from Jinyoung. It’s heavier than it looks. “Thanks.”

Jinyoung and Daehwi wave at him as he leaves their room with the blanket. He throws it on top of Woojin, who doesn’t even flinch at the added weight. Jihoon adjusts the blanket so that it’s covering all of Woojin before throwing himself back onto his own bed.

He gives Woojin one last lookover to make sure he looks comfortable and continues to keep an eye on him in case it looks like he’s getting too warm.

“Stupid Woojin. Why did you have to get sick.” Jihoon sighs as he takes Woojin’s temperature when an hour and a half has passed. “Hurry up and get better, idiot. You’re making me worried.”

Woojin doesn’t respond, obviously, but his lips quirk down in a small frown as if he can hear what Jihoon is saying. He mumbles out something incoherent and shifts in his sleep, almost knocking Jihoon off the bed.

“Asshole,” Jihoon hisses as he catches himself on time. “You even attack me in your sleep. What nonsense is this?”

All he gets as a response is some more incoherent mumbling and Jihoon sighs. He’d get Woojin back later, when he was healthy.


	2. Chapter 2

As soon as he gets over his cold and gets the clear from Jisung, Woojin goes to the practice room to dance off the pent-up energy inside of him, courtesy of being stuck in bed for three days straight.

“You’re going to get yourself sick again,” Daniel comments in half-amusement and half-worry when they stop for a break. “Don’t overwork yourself.”

“I won’t,” Woojin reassures Daniel. “Besides, I already filled my sickness quota for the rest of the year. I’ll be fine. Probably.”

“Don’t jinx yourself,” Jihoon warns as he walks past the duo to get to his water bottle. “You got sick right after you declared yourself immune to sicknesses, remember?”

“Knock on wood, Woojinnie,” Seongwoo singsongs before he steals Jihoon’s water bottle and chugs half of it down in one go. “Thanks, Jihoon.”

“Hey!” Jihoon protests, staring at his half-empty water bottle in shock. “Who said you could steal my water?”

“… Boyfriend privileges?” Seongwoo tries and attempts to sell it with a grin. When Jihoon’s glare doesn’t subside, he pouts. “I’ll buy you another drink later.”

“I want chocolate milk.” Jihoon glares.

“I’m an adult now, he said,” Woojin mutters under his breath. Daniel and Jaehwan, who had come over and draped himself on Daniel’s back, hear this and burst out into laughter.

Seongwoo and Jihoon look over in confusion and watches as Daniel and Jaehwan both collapse onto Woojin in laughter, and the three of them go tumbling down onto the ground.

“What are you doing.” Jihoon has the most judgmental expression on his face, and Woojin thinks that he shouldn’t look so judgmental for someone who ran face first into the wall in their room because he was sleepwalking.

“Woojin said something funny,” Daniel snickers. He grabs both Woojin and Jaehwan by the arms and hauls them up as if they weigh nothing.

“What did he say?” Seongwoo looks at Woojin curiously. Woojin shoots a panicked look at Daniel and Jaehwan, because yes he might be stronger than Jihoon in terms of strength, but Jihoon is a demon who shouldn’t be messed with.

“He, uh, told us a joke.” Jaehwan tries to save their main rapper’s life. “It was funny.”

“What was the joke?” Jihoon jumps over and plasters himself onto Woojin’s side, which causes his heart to start doing flip flops inside.

“Um.” Woojin tries to think of a joke. “How do you make holy water?”

Jihoon narrows his eyes, already dreading the punchline. “I don’t know. How?”

“You boil the hell out of it?” Woojin finishes the joke but it ends up sounding like a question. As if on cue, Daniel and Jaehwan burst out into laughter, thought it sounds a lot more forced than earlier.

“That was terrible,” Seongwoo comments. “And I thought _my_ jokes were bad.”

“You admit they’re bad then?” Minhyun asks from the side. The five of them turn their heads in surprise. They hadn’t realized Minhyun was even listening. “Maybe you should stop telling jokes, then. Both of you.”

“Hey,” Woojin tries to defend himself, though it sounds pathetic even to his own ears. “My jokes are good. Sometimes.”

“That one was terrible, though.” Minhyun really doesn’t pull his punches sometimes, Woojin observes. “Try better next time, Woojinnie. Don’t become like our Seongwoo over here.”

“My jokes are great, thank you very much,” Seongwoo grumbles unhappily. Jihoon detaches himself from Woojin and goes over to comfort his boyfriend, though he nods his head in agreement to Minhyun from behind Seongwoo’s back.

Park Jihoon is a snake, Woojin thinks to himself silently. He values his life too much to say this out loud.

He watches as Jihoon continues to dote on a sulking Seongwoo, though it’s obvious to everyone in the room that Seongwoo is just faking it at this point for show. Jihoon knows it too, but he humors his boyfriend anyways. Woojin looks away from the sight when it feels like his heart is going to drop down to his stomach.

Jaehwan notices Woojin’s dejected expression and frowns, eyes flickering towards the couple and the sulking boy.

It clicks when Woojin keeps stealing glances at Jihoon, who’s still cooing over Seongwoo, and Jaehwan’s eyes widen in shock at what he’s noticed.

“Oh, fuck,” he whispers to himself. Nobody hears him, thankfully, and Jaehwan makes a mental note to talk to the younger boy on their next free day.

\--------------

“I’m coming in.” Jaehwan barges into Jihoon’s and Woojin’s room, and the pink sausage duo look up from their respective phones in surprise.

“Hyung?” Jihoon is the one to break the awkward silence that stretches over for a few seconds. “Hi?”

“Can I borrow Woojin for a second?” Jaehwan doesn’t give either of them a chance to respond before he’s dragging Woojin out of the room. “Thanks.”

Jihoon stares in surprise as Woojin is quite literally manhandled out of the room. Jaehwan has him grabbed by the arm and Woojin can barely find his balance before he’s hauled out of his room.

“What the heck?” Woojin sputters as he tries to free himself from Jaehwan’s surprisingly iron grasp. “Hyung, I can walk. Please let go of me.”

Jaehwan doesn’t let him go until they’re on the elevator on they’re down to the other dorm. None of the occupants of the other dorm bat an eyelash when Jaehwan drags Woojin in like he’s dragging in a lost puppy that’s run away from home. It’s almost as if Jaehwan dragging in strays is a common occurrence.

“Okay.” Jaehwan forces Woojin to sit down on his bed while he chooses to occupy his chair. “Let’s talk about something.”

“What is going on,” Woojin asks aloud in confusion, looking up at the ceiling as if the answer will be written up there. “What just happened.”

Jaehwan snorts and snaps his fingers in front of Woojin’s face to bring his attention back down. “Eyes down here, kid.”

Woojin flinches and swats Jaehwan’s hands away. “Why did you drag me down here instead of asking me to come down like a normal person?”

“Do you like Jihoon?” Jaehwan doesn’t bother beating around the bush and Woojin shuts his mouth with a _clack!_ in shock. The two of them stare at each other, one looking serious while the other one looks like he’s going to have a panic attack any second now.

“I can’t read,” Woojin blurts out as if that’s the solution that’ll get him out of this mess. “Please, let this poor, illiterate child go. Have pity on me.”

“Your terrible memes won’t get you out of this,” Jaehwan says. “Also, this is a verbal conversation. You’re not reading anything, what the fuck?”

“Why is this happening to me.” Woojin looks up again and wonders how much money it’ll take for him to book a one-way flight to Australia and change his entire identity. A lot, probably. “Why.”

“You’re not answering my question, which is giving me the answer,” Jaehwan points out. “I’m just trying to help you, you know.”

Woojin looks at his hyung with a slight pout, and Jaehwan takes pity at how sad the boy looks. “How did you know? I thought I was hiding it pretty well.”

“Um.” Jaehwan thinks back to the day he noticed in the practice room, and how he kept noticing Woojin looking at Jihoon with the cutest love-struck puppy eyes (which is pretty sad, in this case, Jaehwan surmises). He also thinks back to how he can’t believe he missed it before because wow. Woojin sure does stare at Jihoon a lot.

“I’m guess that’s a no,” Woojin guesses and sighs when Jaehwan just sort of grimaces.

“You’re a little obvious, but only if you know where to look,” Jaehwan tries to reassure to younger, but it doesn’t help.

“Do you know if anybody else knows?” The last thing Woojin wants is for more people to find out which will inevitably lead to Jihoon and Seongwoo to find out. Woojin really doesn’t need that in his life, thanks.

“Um.” Jaehwan tries to think. “Well, I’m pretty sure Daehwi knows, because he keeps shaking his head whenever you stare at Jihoon.”

“I don’t stare,” Woojin starts to complain.

“You kind of do,” Jaehwan interrupts. “Anyways, I’m like. Eighty percent sure that Guanlin knows too, but you know Guanlin. He stays far away from drama if he can help it.”

“He’s the smartest out of all of us,” Woojin comments.

Jaehwan nods in agreement. “Yeah. He really doesn’t care for the bullshit that goes around here. It’s almost admirable.”

The main vocal and main rapper take a beat of silence to commend their youngest for really trying his best to stay away and avoid causing any unnecessary drama before Jaehwan (unfortunately for Woojin) opens his mouth again.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Jaehwan asks gently. “You don’t have to, if you don’t want to. I just want to make sure you’re okay.”

Woojin contemplates Jaehwan’s offer and toys with the idea in his head. He hadn’t counted on what would happen if somebody found out about his crush on Jihoon; he was hoping that he would get over it before anyone noticed.

“I guess so,” Woojin finally says after a few minutes of contemplation. “I mean, there’s not any grand reason or story for my crush on him. I just like him, I guess.”

“When did it start?” Jaehwan makes himself comfortable on the chair and gives Woojin his undivided attention. “If you don’t mind me asking, of course.”

Woojin thinks back to when he first saw Jihoon’s audition on Produce 101, and how he’d been intrigued by his same-aged friend’s dance skills. “I think I always had my eye on him. You remember his audition on Produce, right?”

“How can I not?” Jaehwan snorts. “My joints felt pain watching that.”

Woojin laughs. “Yeah. I thought the reason my eyes kept going towards him out of everyone else was because of friendly competition, you know? And then we got really close when we were getting ready for Get Ugly.”

“A legendary performance,” Jaehwan declares, as if he hadn’t been the center for the legendary Downpour performance. “But yes, continue.”

He rolls his eyes, but Woojin’s eyes are fond as he continues. “Well, I realized that maybe my feelings weren’t purely platonic after all when I wanted to kiss him when he snuck out of the dorms to bring me milk tea back when I had the shingles.”

“Oh.” Jaehwan blinks in surprise. That had probably been really risky. “Why didn’t you confess, then?”

“I wanted to, after the final broadcast,” Woojin admits. “But something stopped me.”

“What?” Jaehwan questions. Woojin thinks back to the night when their debuts were confirmed, and how he had almost confessed to Jihoon while they were both high on adrenaline.

“He did,” Woojin reveals, and Jaehwan’s eyebrows shoot up in both shock and confusion. “He told me that he was in love with Seongwoo hyung that night.”


	3. Chapter 3

“Woojin!” Jihoon sneaks up behind Woojin and tackles him, almost sending them to the ground. “We made it!”

Woojin grunts as he tries to accommodate for Jihoon’s weight, but he can only do so much when he hadn’t been expecting the extra weight and eventually loses his balance, causing them to both tumble down.

“Give a guy a warning before you do that,” Woojin complains despite not really caring. They’re both still noticeably skittish from the adrenaline, and Woojin notices the sparkles in Jihoon’s eyes are extra bright that night.

“Can you believe it?” Jihoon actually squeals. “We’re debuting together!”

“Yeah, I can’t believe I’ll be stuck with you for one whole year,” Woojin teases. “Ow, Jihoon I’m sorry. Jihoon, stop hitting me! I said I’m sorry!”

“You’re horrible,” Jihoon laments as he questions his choice of a best friend. “Why are we friends?”

“You know I’m joking,” Woojin says as he rubs his sore arm. He pouts at Jihoon and the two of them help each other stand. Although their height difference is usually almost unnoticeable, it gets really obvious that Woojin is taller when they’re standing as close as they are right now.

It’s now or never, Woojin thinks to himself. His eyes dart back and forth between Jihoon’s sparkly eyes and his red tint-covered lips.

“I have something to say,” Jihoon says first, tongue darting out and wetting his lips nervously.

Woojin freezes and waits for Jihoon to continue, asking a silent _‘What?’_ with his eyes.

“I think I like Seongwoo hyung,” Jihoon blurts out and immediately covers his mouth with his hands afterwards. Woojin feels his heart drop like it’s made of cement at Jihoon’s words, and he swears that his stomach is trying to eat itself right at that moment.

“What?” he asks, not getting over his shock. “You… what?”

“I know,” Jihoon whispers, eyes darting around in mild panic to make sure that no one is in the room. “I think that… I may be in love with him?”

“Oh.” Woojin’s heart breaks even more at that and he wants to cry. “Um.”

“I want to confess, but I don’t even know if he’s, you know.” Jihoon kicks forlornly at the ground. “I don’t want to risk it since we’ll be in the same group.”

“You should try,” Woojin finds himself saying. His heart says stop, but his mind says keep going if he wants to keep his friendship with Jihoon. “Better to try then have regrets, right?”

Jihoon mulls over Woojin’s words carefully. “You’re right. I’d rather be rejected after trying rather than not trying at all.” He beams up at Woojin and pulls his friend in for a tight hug. “Thanks, Woojinnie. I love you.”

Woojin hesitates before hugging Jihoon back.

“I love you too, Jihoon.”

It doesn’t take long for Jihoon to confess, which doesn’t surprise Woojin seeing how Jihoon is virtually incapable of hiding his feelings. This does surprise Woojin, though, because Jihoon had spent two months on Produce 101 hiding his feelings the best he could in order not to cause any drama.

“He wants to wait until I turn twenty,” Jihoon whispers to him the same night he blurts out his confession to Seongwoo at the dining table. It would’ve been funny if not for Woojin’s growing feelings towards their wink boy. Seongwoo had literally done nothing but pass Jihoon some water when Jihoon blurted out, “Hyung, I love you. Let’s date.”

To say everyone was shocked would be an understatement. Even Woojin had been surprised, and he was actually aware of Jihoon’s feelings.

“Um.” Seongwoo had blinked in shock. “Let’s… talk about this after dinner.”

And so, after talking, Jihoon had sought out Woojin and dragged him into an empty room to tell him about what he and Seongwoo had talked about.

Woojin’s heart breaks even more.

“I understand why, of course,” Jihoon continues through Woojin’s silence. “We are still minors, and he’s four whole years older than us.”

“That’s…” Woojin trails off. “Is that a good thing, or a bad thing? I don’t know what to say.”

Jihoon snorts. “I didn’t get rejected, so I guess it’s a good thing. I’m nervous, though.” Jihoon’s licks his bottom lip and Woojin unconsciously follows the movement. “What if he only said that to be nice and hold off rejecting me? What if he’s hoping that I stop liking him before I turn twenty?”

“Seongwoo hyung isn’t the type of person to do that, though,” Woojin points out wisely, though pieces of his heart breaks more and more with each passing second. “He would probably tell you straight up. Nicely, though, because hyung is nice. Even if he’s stupid.”

“I’ll ignore that last sentence even if it’s true,” Jihoon giggles. “You’re right. Thanks, Woojinnie. I knew I could count on you to calm me down.”

“What are friends for?” Woojin manages to get out without breaking down, and Jihoon beams up at him.

“You aren’t just a friend,” Jihoon tells him with the brightest smile Woojin has ever seen. “You’re my best friend.”

Woojin’s soul dies a little inside, but that’s okay.

As long as Jihoon is happy, Woojin thinks as he lets Jihoon hug him before the latter runs out of the room, probably in search of Seongwoo. As long as Jihoon is happy, he would be happy.

\--------------

“You’re an idiot,” Jaehwan tells him when Woojin is finished talking. “Why didn’t you just tell him that you like him?”

Woojin shrugs. “I didn’t want to lose our friendship, I guess. Telling him just wasn’t worth the risk.”

“You gave Jihoon a lot of advice, but you’re shit at following them yourself,” Jaehwan says flatly. “In your own words, better to try than have regrets, right?”

“I think it’s a little different in my case?” Woojin grimaces. “I think I would regret it even more if I told him.”

Jaehwan sighs at Woojin’s words because he understands why Woojin would think so. To be honest, Jaehwan also thinks the same, but he wishes that there was something he could do for the dejected boy sitting on his bed.

“Anyways,” Woojin continues after a beat of silence. “I’ll be fine. It’s just a crush. I’m sure I’ll get over it eventually.”

It’s not ‘just a crush’ if you’ve felt this way for almost a year, Jaehwan wants to say, but he wisely keeps his mouth shut. “If that’s what you think,” he says instead, “then I guess I can’t do anything but support you.”

Woojin laughs at that and smiles. “Thanks, Jaehwan hyung. I should get going, before Jihoon storms in here. You did kind of manhandle me out of our room.”

“Yeah, yeah. Go before the demon comes and unleashes his fury onto poor little old me.” Jaehwan waves his hands and shoos Woojin out of his room. “I have things to do.”

“You’re the one who dragged me in,” Woojin complains but gets up to leave. “I’ll see you later, hyung.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Jaehwan grins. “If he asks, tell Jihoon I wanted to talk to you about our unit performance.”

“Got it.” Woojin gives a small salute before leaving the room. Jaehwan shakes his head after Woojin closes the door behind him.

“Poor kid,” he mutters to himself. “What’s he being so unnecessarily chivalrous for?”

When Woojin gets back to the other apartment, the first thing he sees is Jihoon cuddling on the couch with Seongwoo. He swallows thickly and powerwalks through the living room into the safety of his empty room and throws himself onto his bed.

He exhales deeply and pulls out his phone, unlocking it. After mindlessly scrolling through Twitter for a few minutes and reading some of their fans’ tweets, he closes the app and locks his phone. Shutting his eyes, Woojin throws an arm over his face and wills his body to relax completely.

The image of Jihoon in Seongwoo’s arms refuses to leave his mind no matter how hard Woojin tries to think of something else, and he ends up falling asleep and dreaming of being left behind by his best friend.


	4. Chapter 4

A couple of days pass with Woojin avoiding Jihoon like the plague whenever Seongwoo is around, and he concludes that this is Not working and is only causing Jihoon confusion and a little bit of anger, and so Woojin decides that he should probably go talk to someone and ask for advice.

Someone who isn’t Jaehwan or Daehwi, though, because they stress Woojin out. Guanlin is also out of the question because not only does their maknae practically worships the ground Jihoon walks on, he’s also adamant in staying out of any problems and always plays the “I don’t speak Korean” card whenever he can.

And so, Woojin goes to the next best person: Minhyun.

“What.” Minhyun’s jaw drops and Woojin wants to reach out and close his mouth for him. “You… you like Jihoon?”

Woojin sighs. “Yes.”

“Since when?” Minhyun asks, still in shock. “How did I not notice?”

“I try not to make it obvious,” Woojin grunts. “And please don’t ask me when this started because I don’t know what to tell you.”

Which is a lie. Woojin just doesn’t want Minhyun to know the severity of his feelings. He’s already shocked his hyung enough for one day; he doesn’t need to give Minhyun a heart attack by telling him that it’s been almost a year.

“Almost a year?” Minhyun all but hisses. “Why haven’t you told him?”

Woojin frowns. “Did I say that out loud?”

“Yes.” Minhyun nods with a sigh. “You should work on that habit, by the way. Thinking out loud. It’s not a very good habit to have with an occupation like ours.”

And Minhyun is right, like always. It would be detrimental for Woojin’s career if he doesn’t fix this habit of his.

“So,” Minhyun interrupts Woojin’s train of thoughts. “Why didn’t you tell him?”

Woojin grimaces. “I was going to, but before I could he told me that he’s in love with Seongwoo hyung, so…”

Minhyun makes a quiet noise of surprise and moves to bring Woojin in for a hug. Woojin stiffens but relaxes after a second and leans into his hyung’s embrace. It’s nice, being held like this by someone. He’s not one to actively seek out for physical affection, so he basks in it when his hyungs offer it.

“I’m sorry about that, Woojin.” Minhyun murmurs into Woojin’s hair.

“Why are you sorry, hyung?” Woojin asks. “It’s not like you went and told Jihoon to fall in love with Seongwoo hyung or anything.”

“No,” Minhyun admits, “but you were hurting and I didn’t realize. As your hyung, I’ve failed you.”

“I’m good at hiding my feelings,” Woojin mumbles so quietly that Minhyun almost doesn’t hear him. The elder sighs at how disheartened Woojin looks and hugs him tighter.

“What are you going to do?” Minhyun asks.

“I don’t know,” Woojin says. “Jaehwan hyung thinks I should tell him, and maybe I should. For closure. So that I can move on. But I don’t think that’s being very fair to Jihoon, or Seongwoo hyung, even. I don’t know what to do, hyung.”

Woojin’s voice gets quieter with each word and Minhyun feels his heart breaking for the younger boy. How hard must it have been for him to carry this baggage with him all this time, with nobody to lean on for support? Not to mention how much their fans love seeing the two same-aged friends together.

“What do _you_ want to do, Woojin?” Minhyun asks. He rubs Woojin’s back to try and comfort him. “Don’t think about what Jaehwan thinks you should do, or what you think is right. What do you want to do?”

Woojin is silent as he thinks over Minhyun’s question, and Minhyun lets the younger take his time. What did Woojin want to do? He doesn’t know, because he’s never thought about what he wants to do. All this time, he only focused on making sure he doesn’t make Jihoon uncomfortable by revealing his feelings, so that his best friend can be happy with Seongwoo.

But what about him? What did Woojin want?

“I want closure,” Woojin says finally, after a few minutes had passed. “That’s what I want. Closure. I don’t need him to return my feelings, because I know that’s impossible. I just want to be able to move past this so that it’s not holding me down in the few months we have left with each other.”

Minhyun smiles at Woojin, feeling proud of the younger for admitting what he wants. “What are you waiting for, then? Go get your closure, Woojin.”

Woojin smiles at Minhyun and gives his hyung one last hug before getting up to go find Jihoon. “Thanks, hyung.”

“Of course.” Minhyun stands up to walk Woojin out, wrapping an arm around the younger boy. “I’m always here for you, Woojin.”

\--------------

Jihoon sneezes and Woojin feels bad for having his friend meet him on the rooftop when it’s so cold outside, but he doesn’t know where else would offer the privacy that they need for this conversation.

“So, what is it?” Jihoon asks while shivering and Woojin wordlessly shrugs off his jacket and drapes it over the shivering boy. “Wait, take this back, Woojin. It’s freezing outside! You’re going to get sick.”

“I’m not cold,” Woojin lies. “Besides, you look like you need it more. I’m the one who dragged you out here, anyways.”

Jihoon looks like he wants to protest some more but Woojin zips the zipper up all the way to top, trapping Jihoon’s arms, effectively trapping him.

“Fine,” Jihoon concedes reluctantly. “What did you want to talk about?”

Woojin hesitates, which Jihoon notices. It’s not like Jihoon is stupid; he’s definitely noticed Woojin avoiding him the past few days, but he wanted to wait and let his friend to approach him first.

“I have something to say,” Woojin says when he finally manages to muster up the courage to talk. “Something important.”

“Well, I know that.” Jihoon gives Woojin an unamused stare, though the corners of his lips twitch up in an effort to hide his amusement. “I would hope it’s important. If you dragged me up here for something stupid I’ll kick your ass, Park.”

“So vicious,” Woojin mumbles. “How does Seongwoo hyung even put up with you?”

“Hey!” Jihoon protests. Woojin cracks a smile but it falls not a second later.

“I like you.” Woojin decides there’s no point in beating around the bush anymore. He’s done that enough the past year. “I like you, Park Jihoon.”

Jihoon’s eyes are wide and his lips are parted in surprise. He hadn’t been sure of what to expect, but it hadn’t been that.

“Um.” Jihoon doesn’t know what to say. “Woojin…”

“I know.” Woojin gives Jihoon a small smile, and Jihoon wonders how a smile can look so sad. “Obviously I’m not expecting you to return my feelings or anything like that. That would be ridiculous. I just wanted to let you know so that I can start moving on without any regrets.”

“I’m sorry,” Jihoon whispers. He looks down at the ground at their feet and he feels the tears prickling at the back of his eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“Why are you sorry?” Woojin lets out an empty chuckle. He rests his hand on the crown of Jihoon’s head and pats it a little. “You have nothing to be sorry for. This is all me.”

Jihoon stays silent and Woojin sighs and hugs Jihoon tightly.

“Stop crying,” Woojin scolds. “You did nothing wrong. You have no reason to cry. Save your tears for something that really matters, Park Jihoon.”

“You do matter,” Jihoon wails and shoves his face into Woojin’s chest. “You matter, Park Woojin, so shut up.”

Woojin just lets out an exasperated sigh and lets Jihoon cry it out in his chest. He’s not sure what kind of situation this is, and he’s even less sure what he should do. He hadn’t expected Jihoon to start crying, and everything happening is out of his expectations.

Somebody knocks on the rooftop door and Woojin turns around as Seongwoo pokes his head outside. “Hey. Jisung hyung said to come back inside. It’s supposed to go below freezing and start snowing soon.”

He raises an eyebrow when he notices Jihoon crying in Woojin’s arms and gives Woojin a confused look.

“Please help me,” Woojin mouths at Seongwoo and tilts his head towards Jihoon. “Get him away from me.”

Seongwoo is confused but trots over to peel a hiccupping Jihoon away from Woojin. “Hey. Jihoonie, why are you crying?”

Jihoon’s too busy hiccupping to reply so Seongwoo looks towards Woojin for answers, but all he gets is a blank expression from the other Park, so Seongwoo is left with at least five questions but no answers.

“I’ll be going in first, then.” Woojin starts to walk towards the door, feeling a little awkward now. “Jihoon, hurry up and stop crying so that Seongwoo hyung can go inside.”

He flees when Jihoon raises his hands to hit Woojin for that comment, cackling a little as he races down the stairs towards the elevators.

Woojin feels like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders and chest, and he feels lighter than he’s ever felt since Produce 101. He goes to find Minhyun first. Or Jaehwan. Whichever one he runs into first, Woojin figures.

He’s in luck (or is he?), because Jaehwan and Minhyun are together talking about something while they share a bag of chips together.

“Hi, hyungs.” Woojin slides into the seat next to Jaehwan and steals a potato chip. “I talked to Jihoon.”

“You did?” Jaehwan raises an eyebrow. “How’d it go?”

“He cried,” Woojin tells him. “Seongwoo hyung is with him on the rooftop—oh, nope. They’re here.”

Jihoon storms inside the apartment while Seongwoo lingers at the doorway and watches while shaking his head as Jihoon smacks Woojin’s head.

“You suck, and I hate you,” Jihoon declares. “See you later, nerd.”

“Bye.” Woojin just waves him off and Jihoon sticks his tongue out at Woojin before walking off to where Seongwoo is standing.

Minhyun and Jaehwan aren’t sure how to react at the interaction they just witnessed and opt to quietly eat their chips. Woojin snorts at how awkward his hyungs are being.

“We are good, don’t worry,” Woojin reassures his hyungs. “I wasn’t sure when I came down here but from the way he’s acting, I think we’ll be fine.”

He looks back and chuckles while watching Jihoon struggling to put his shoes back on. When he and Seongwoo leaves, Woojin watches them with a thoughtful look. The ache in his chest is still there, but that’s inevitable, Woojin thinks. It’s not like his feelings will disappear just because he told Jihoon.

It will take time, Woojin knows, but he’s glad that he told Jihoon, and even gladder that his best friend seems to be understanding about it.

Seeing Jihoon with Seongwoo will still hurt, Woojin doesn’t doubt that, but at least now he’s got the closure he needed to move past all this towards a brighter future.

When he turns back around, he sees both Minhyun and Jaehwan smiling at him softly, with proud sparkles in their eyes, and Woojin smiles back.

He’s not alone, Woojin learns. He’s got his members to look out for him and watch his back, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [twitter](https://twitter.com/iridescent__ong) | [curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/iridescent__ong)


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